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Iowa Voters Caucus in First-in-the Nation Contest; Senate to Begin Closing Arguments on Impeachment Trial of President Trump; Growing Number of Republicans Cite Trump's Actions were Inappropriate but not Impeachable; Iowa Voters Caucus in First-in-the-Nation Contest. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 03, 2020 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:00:24]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the morning, good morning, everyone, I'm Poppy Harlow.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

Two major stories we're following this morning. After more than a year of campaigning, fundraising, and of course polling, the Iowa caucuses officially kick off the presidential primary season. It's a crucial day for Democrats. Some trying to survive, some trying to break out.

HARLOW: Also today closing arguments in the president's impeachment trial. And while a growing number of Republicans say openly the president did act inappropriately, they don't like what he did, that they wouldn't do it themselves, they are still set to acquit him in the final vote, that happens this Wednesday.

But first, let's begin with our team in Iowa covering every single angle of this very big day there and the first state to go and caucus, Democrats are sharpening their pitches for caucusgoers.

SCIUTTO: CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny, he's in Des Moines, Iowa.

Jeff, it's a tight contest at the top, you know, most recent polling going either way. What are you seeing on the ground there?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jim and Poppy. There's no question that it is a tight race. And polling is now irrelevant. The reality is the strength of the campaign's organizations on the ground as they turn out their supporters really in the next about eight or 10 hours or so and get them to this series of town meetings across the state of Iowa.

Almost 1700 of those town meetings across the state in libraries, in schools, in church basements. And they will be gathering places for supporters of these candidates to come state their preference. No question, a lot is on the line for Joe Biden, more than any other candidate. He's all in in Iowa. He's been investing more than any other state, and he knows so much is riding on this.

This race is closing with a strength from Bernie Sanders. You can feel it on the ground. You can see it at rallies talking to voters. But there's been one thing that's been so interesting. It's a question about electability. Of course different candidates make different arguments about who is the most electable. But Joe Biden has been is making the argument it would be risky to choose someone else. He was asked about that this morning on NBC's "Today" show by Savannah Guthrie. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAVANNA GUTHRIE, NBC ANCHOR: Pete Buttigieg says it represents an old playbook and so nominating you is a risky choice.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, you think -- if this is a third term for Barack Obama, would you say it's a risky choice?

GUTHRIE: Is that how you see it, a third term for Barack Obama.

BIDEN: No, my point is see as moving on from what we started. I think look, I'm running because of my experience. Who's going to be ready on day one to pick up the phone and call any world leader? And they know who he is and he knows who they are?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So Joe Biden is pressing his experience no doubt. But Barack Obama is still hanging over this contest in many big ways. He, of course, won the Iowa caucuses 12 years ago in 2008 that launched him. Pete Buttigieg is making the argument Democrats should elect a new fresh face. So those are some of the choices facing Democratic voters here tonight.

SCIUTTO: It's a big choice. Jeff Zeleny in Des Moines. Thanks very much.

This morning, all four U.S. senators running for president are back in Washington, of course, to hear closing arguments in the impeachment trial of President Trump.

HARLOW: That's right. Our Ryan Nobles joins us from Des Moines, Iowa. So they've got to go back but then they're going to race. Their private jets are going to race each other to get back to Iowa, I'm sure. What was Bernie Sanders' final message to Iowa caucusgoers?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Jim and Poppy, right now Bernie Sanders and his campaign really believe that the energy and the enthusiasm in the Democratic Party is on their side right now, and they believe that their data is telling them that there are more available Sanders supporters that are going to come out and caucus tonight than there are for any other candidate.

The big question for them is can they get them all to these very caucus locations. It is a very difficult effort. It requires a ton of organization. And they believe they have the boots on the ground here to make that happen but they are relying on somewhat of an unreliable set of caucusgoers, many people that have never caucused before, minority caucusgoers and especially young people.

Still Sanders believes that energy and enthusiasm is going to put him over the top. And in a series of event at campus locations throughout Iowa yesterday, he really pressed his team that this was the time for them to perform. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So tomorrow night is the beginning. It is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: And so you hear there Bernie Sanders also kind of a slight nod to this idea of electability that's been the one knock on his campaign. It's obviously the one thing you see both Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden pressing on, that they've got a much better shot of beating Donald Trump in a general election.

[09:05:08]

Bernie Sanders believes that energy and enthusiasm is going to be what it's going to take to beat Trump in November -- Jim and Poppy.

HARLOW: OK, Ryan Nobles, stay warm. Exciting night ahead. Thank you very much.

Let's bring in our political correspondent. Abby Phillip.

Good morning, Abby. Let's talk about Mayor Pete Buttigieg because he is even conceding he needs to do really, really well tonight. They have poured so much time, so much money into Iowa. He says this matters incredibly for him.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The stakes are high for Pete Buttigieg. The political newcomer, the youngest candidate in the race and the candidate who has gone from basically zero to 60 in the past year and has poured so much money and effort organizing into the state. And look, he will not say when asked if he needs to win the state but he will say that he needs a strong finish.

And as we close in on the final days of this caucus, you see Buttigieg really closing in on who he thinks his competitors are, and they are Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. You've heard him using language that helps to differentiate himself a little bit more from those two candidates. And he made that pitch to voters just this morning on "NEW DAY." Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG (D-IN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've got to make sure that we are ready to galvanize and not polarize an American majority that is actually strikingly aligned.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: What's polarizing them?

BUTTIGIEG: Well, you know, there's in approach. Certainly Senator Sanders' message is more along the line of, hey, it's either status quo or revolution. And what I'm offering is something that I think more people can see where they fit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: So the caucuses are a big test of both organizing but also strategy. The Buttigieg campaign will tell you that they are feeling pretty good about the rural parts of the state as well, but at the same time there is the question of who are the second choices? There's been some reporting in the last couple of days that the Biden campaign has tried to make, perhaps, a deal with the Klobuchar campaign that if in some parts of the state Klobuchar doesn't receive enough support, her supporters go to Biden.

Klobuchar said she's not particularly interested in that but it is something that is looming over this race, creating so much uncertainty. Where will these second choice voters put their support and could it have a big impact on candidates, particularly like Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg who all three of them are viewing for this sort of middle moderate lane -- Jim and Poppy.

SCIUTTO: It's a unique process there, not a straight-up vote, it's a caucus.

Abby Phillip, thanks very much.

PHILLIP: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Joining me now from Des Moines to discuss the latest in the race, CNN senior analyst Mark Preston.

Mark, great to have you on this morning. So Iowa is a unique state, sometimes even an outlier. Right? Sometimes folks who win there don't go on to win the nomination. But looking at the field, the Democratic field, today, do you expect that we're going to anoint an official frontrunner at this point?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it all depends who wins tonight. We'll see how much they are bunched toward the top. You know, as we've been talking over the past couple of days, what we've seen in this race is that, while we seem to see Bernie Sanders surging, we also see the others at least keeping pace or at least trying to keep pace with him.

Now Bernie Sanders is not only doing well here in Iowa, we're seeing him do well nationally. If he were to come out of Iowa tonight a winner, that's certainly going to help fuel his campaign. It's going to lead to more donations. It certainly will lead to more activists supporting him. But I don't think you can say there's a frontrunner in the sense that that frontrunner is going to be able to go on and win the nomination. There are still a lot more hurdles for people to clear. HARLOW: What is your sense of the ground there, Mark, of Senator Amy

Klobuchar? From the neighboring state, who needs a good finish. Some are talking boult her as the dark horse, can she make it into the top three tonight, if she doesn't, what does that mean for her campaign? What is the sense you get on the ground there about her campaign?

PRESTON: Well, she's running a very interesting campaign here in the sense that she clearly is defining her lane. She's running as the centrist. She talks about her ability to beat Donald Trump. She goes out there and talks about being a fighter. She's also campaigning in parts of the state that tend to be a little more Republican. We're seeing the same thing on the side of Pete Buttigieg.

So they are certainly trying to go into areas where Democrats haven't done so well in the general election. But even if Amy Klobuchar doesn't place in the top three tonight, I think she still has a case to go on. She still can go to New Hampshire, you know, and she certainly has a message that may resonate with people.

Now what's also interesting about Amy Klobuchar is that if she is not able to move on, she could be positioning herself to be someone's vice presidential pick if she's eventually not the nominee.

SCIUTTO: All right. So there's a candidate in this race that is not focusing, invested in Iowa, he's grabbing the president's attention, and he is -- I think we should put these numbers up on the screen, spending a lot of money in this race, a quarter of a billion, Michael Bloomberg, there, I mean, well, it's almost $300 billion now.

[09:10:02]

You know, in order of magnitude bigger than any other candidate here, how big is his candidacy looming at this point? Is he a serious contender regardless of what happens today?

PRESTON: I think anybody with the deepest pockets of Michael Bloomberg has to be considered a serious contender especially somebody who won two terms as the mayor of New York City. You know, it's not -- as he's not politically smart, he's not a novice when it comes to this. But I will this, coming out of Iowa, Michael Bloomberg would love to see Bernie Sanders come out of Iowa because his whole argument is counter to Bernie Sanders.

Michael Bloomberg would like to see Joe Biden go by the wayside. He'd also like to see Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar as we were just talking about, kind of fade away. That then opens up the lane for Michael Bloomberg specifically in the Super Tuesday states in March. And that's what we've seen him spend, what, over $300 million plus just on advertising, which is unbelievable.

HARLOW: And there's a lot more where that money came from.

Mark Preston, thank you very much.

Still to come, more Republicans say the president's call with Ukraine's president was not perfect. You've heard Joni Ernst say that yesterday, but it's not stopping them from see that vote to acquit him on Wednesday. Closing arguments are set to begin in the president's impeachment trial. Just under two hours now.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Inappropriate the new favorite.

HARLOW: Right.

SCIUTTO: Plus the United States sending more flights to China to evacuate U.S. citizens there. This is the corona virus death toll rises to more than 360 people. Question now about that becoming a pandemic. And for the first time in 50 years, the Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City, Missouri, by the way, are Super Bowl champion. We'll get to that.

An incredible comeback will be live in Miami.

HARLOW: Good geography, Jim.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

SCIUTTO: Trial is not over. This morning, the Senate will hear closing arguments in the president's impeachment trial. The final vote where he's expected to be acquitted is set for Wednesday.

HARLOW: The president is already signaling that he will have a hard time he says, working with at least top Democrats in the future. Our reporting is that he and house Speaker Nancy Pelosi have not talked in months. Our congressional reporter Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill, John Harwood is at the White House. Lauren, let's begin with you. What -- just walk us through what is going to happen today.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, starting in just a couple of hours, Poppy, around 11:00 this morning, you will expect to hear closing arguments from both the house managers and the president's defense team. After that senators will have an opportunity this afternoon to start their statements on the Senate floor about why they are going to vote either to remove the president or vote against removing him, depending on what they have chosen to do.

Those speeches will continue tomorrow and Wednesday morning. And then at 4:00 on Wednesday, that very crucial vote that we expect the president will be acquitted of all the charges against him. Now, the president is going to have to deliver his State of the Union Tuesday night with the air of impeachment hanging over him. And that was because Democrats wanted to make sure that was the air in which he had to deliver the speech.

It's a very, you know, unusual situation where the president is going to be giving this address that is usually seen as an opportunity to unite the country as he is still in impeachment. So, that's what you're going to expect in the next couple of days. We are hearing from some senators who voted against witnesses, saying that they did believe that the president did do what he was accused of doing, but Lamar Alexander said yesterday that did not rise to the level of impeachment.

Joni Ernst; a Democrat -- excuse me, a Republican up for re-election in 2020 also made a similar statement. So that's where senators are, it will be interesting to hear those statements on the floor in just a couple of hours. Poppy and Jim --

SCIUTTO: That word -- that word "inappropriate" has become a buzz word in a whole host of situations, generally as far as many Republicans will go. John, the president, 36 hours away from delivering the State of the Union address. There's been some reporting that he's planning something of a unifying message. What are you hearing from the White House? Is that the way he's going to go here?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think so. And that would be the smart political play. The president signaled yesterday he's got to have a positive State of the Union speech, and that makes sense. He's got an economy --

SCIUTTO: There you go --

HARWOOD: That is more than good enough to sustain a re-election bid for most presidents. Of course, yesterday, he also showcased the split message of -- in the interview with "Fox", he did the insults that are characteristically Trump on Mike Bloomberg and Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff and that sort of thing.

But the -- on the biggest stage, the advertisement he run, that was a feel-good piece about criminal justice reform. So, when you take conditions in the country, it makes sense for a president seeking re- election to try to emphasize the positive. One of the big questions, I think, guys, is what are the personal dynamics between Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump up on the podium?

Does he turn around, shake her hand? The textbook play would be for him to be gracious with Nancy Pelosi to try to take some of the edge off the situation, but we know that Donald Trump's textbook is different from everybody else's textbook.

SCIUTTO: Yes, gracious? Did you say gracious, John Harwood? OK --

(LAUGHTER)

HARWOOD: That's right.

HARLOW: Thanks very much. We'll see what actually happens tomorrow night. Lauren, John, appreciate it. Iowa caucus-goers making their 2020 picks. What today's winner tells us about the state of the race, and what voters are really thinking.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:00]

HARLOW: It's an exciting, albeit cold day in Iowa. In just a few hours, Iowa caucus-goers will give the nation its first snapshot of where the 2020 Democratic voters stand. SCIUTTO: Since the year 2004, Democrats at least, Iowa has correctly

predicted the eventual nominee. Joining us now to discuss, Brianne Pfannenstiel; chief politics reporter for the "Des Moines Register", Xochitl Hinojosa; communications director for the DNC, and Patti Solis Doyle; former presidential campaign manager for Hillary Clinton. Great to have you all here. So, Sochi, what do you make of what seems to be a lot of uncertainty going into this race among voters who will choose their second choice.

Because you know, it's an interesting process here, right?

XOCHITL HINOJOSA, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE: Yes --

SCIUTTO: You might have your first, if you don't get there, then you might go another way, and that could affect the final result.

HINOJOSA: Absolutely. Well, that's the beauty of the caucus especially this year where there have been changes. For the first time, you're able to show up to a caucus, you're able to cast your vote and caucus for your presidential preference.

[09:25:00]

And if your presidential preference hits 15 percent, then you're able to go home. You'll be able to go home and make enough for your family, have the rest of your evening. If your presidential preference is not viable, then, you can stay, you can caucus for someone who is viable. You can go ahead and caucus uncommitted, or you can combine with another group and make your presence viable.

And so, this is why this year, it's very different. But the beauty of the caucus is we actually don't know who is going to win. One important thing is that, all the polling that has come out has been at the state-wide level, 75 percent of the precincts in Iowa --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

HINOJOSA: Seventy five percent of the delegates come out of the precincts. The congressional districts, not statewide. So, we don't really know what's going to happen tonight, but regardless, I believe that this process will lead to a very strong nominee.

HARLOW: All right, so Brianne, as the Iowa reporter here with us, I mean, the thing is, this new rule could also confuse things in terms of how the campaign is spinning because they're not only just going to put out the SDE totals, they're also going to put out the total number of votes from the first grouping, right? So it's different this year.

BRIANNE PFANNENSTIEL, CHIEF POLITICS REPORTER, DES MOINES REGISTER: It's very different this year. The way that we're going to get results is completely different than anything we've ever seen. We've always had the delegate results at the end, which is kind of similar to the electoral college in a way. But --

HARLOW: Yes -- PFANNENSTIEL: The caucuses will have a first alignment, which is kind

of a first vote. And we'll get that raw vote total of how people aligned. And that will be a lot closer to what we would see in a primary vote. So, we'll get that first vote. We'll get the second alignment numbers. So, we'll see how Iowa caucus-goers shifted in the room. We might see where those second choices go.

If you're an Andrew Yang supporter, did they go to Bernie Sanders or did they go Elizabeth Warren? How did it shape out in the room? And at the end of the night, we're going to have all of these different metrics to pass, and all of the campaigns are going to be looking for ways to spin it in their favor.

Did they do really great on the first alignment statewide and just maybe didn't get the delegates? Or did they win the delegate number, but somebody else won the popular vote. So, this could really mix some things up tonight as we're looking at the results that it's going to give the campaigns a lot of different ways to spin them in their favor.

SCIUTTO: So, Patti, it is an interesting race, and that you have several viable candidates here in Iowa. But you have another very viable candidate who is not participating, and is, in fact, increasing his presence. I mean, he spent $300 million on campaign ads, that of course, Michael Bloomberg, and he's certainly attracting the attention of President Trump.

How does he shake up the race even after these early moments in Iowa and New Hampshire, et cetera, before Super Tuesday where he's focusing?

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN MANAGER FOR HILLARY CLINTON: Well, look, when someone has $50 billion to spend on an election, that's being able to shake up the race. I think, you know, his strategy was to skip the first four states and really focus on Super Tuesday in the states that come after that. He is definitely getting under President Trump's skin with the money that he's spending, the advertising.

He has really smart people around him. Some of my former colleagues, people who've ran campaigns before, national campaigns before. I think his strategy is to see what happens in the first four states, if there's no clear front-runner, if something happens to Biden, which is the moderate lane or Buttigieg where Bloomberg is running in the moderate lane, he stands ready to sort of step in. And so he's biding his time.

But in the meantime, he's pouring a lot of money in attacking Trump, and it's clearly working.

HARLOW: Let's talk a little bit more about the rule change here, Xochitl, because -- you know, and what that means for Michael Bloomberg when it comes to the next Democratic debate that's in Nevada. Look, you guys have changed -- you know, you're dropping the donor threshold. I mean, candidates still have to poll at 10 percent, 12 percent in various states to make it -- HINOJOSA: Yes --

HARLOW: On stage. But Michael Moore didn't like that. And you heard what he said this weekend as he introduced Bernie Sanders in Iowa. He said you guys are conspiring against Sanders and trying to boost Bloomberg. What say you?

HINOJOSA: Well, what Michael Moore said was completely false. Trump- Perez, our DNC chair sat back in November that the rules would change when people start voting, and that's exactly what happened here. After this -- these two contests, you'll have the Nevada debate. So, you will have the results from two contests. We are counting the votes from voters from these two contests, and or you have to hit 10 percent.

And let me remind you, Michael Bloomberg hasn't made it yet because he does not poll at 2 percent. So, we don't base our strategy on any one candidate, we base our strategy on where we are in the race. And at this point in the race, you need to be getting delegates because you need 1,991 delegates in order to get the nomination.

So, you have to be getting delegates or you have to be polling and show real support in the polls and be in double digits.